Parents - One of God’s Greatest Gifts to Us - Quick Observations - Proverbs 1:8,9

Quick links to the passage: KJV NKJV NASB NIV

Again just a quick reminder before we get into our quick observations today, do not forget to sign up for our online bible study to start in June. Just fill out your name and email address to the left. Your privacy will be protected. I really hate spam. You will only get emails from me concerning the bible study and the ministry of this website. You will be blessed that you did sign up because not only will you learn what the bible says, you will learn how to study it effectively so that on your own or with others you can study God’s Word with confidence. What could be better than knowing that when you approach God’s Word, you will learn what God has for you. I cannot promise you that you will learn everything in God’s Word. But I can promise you that you will come away with something and that the Holy Spirit will show it to you. Now to the quick observation.

When I was an adolescent, if I saw a title to a sermon or article like this one, I would have thought the author or speaker was crazy. I never considered my parents as one of God’s greatest gifts in my immature years of life. I always thought that my parents never had it all together. Unfortunately, after I received Jesus Christ as my Savior right before my sixteenth birthday, our relationship got worse. That was partly because of my immaturity and partly of my parents not able to understand spiritual things.

But here is the truth of the matter…

God never made a mistake giving you the parents you have. It took me a long time to acknowledge this in my life. But understand this, God never makes mistakes and He gave me to my parents. According to Him, these are the parents I needed. I am always amused at the reaction I get from some adolescents when I drop this concept on them. They look at me like I had just landed on the planet like I do not have a clue. But look at our passage and see how the bible sees your parents.

First Proverbs tells us to hear the instructions of our fathers and not to forsake the laws of our mothers. In other words, we need to pay attention to what our parents are saying to us and assimilate that information. But not only that, we are not to leave or disregard it. We are not to file it away in the deep subconscious of our minds and forget what they said. And the next verse tells us why.

Those things that our parents tell us will become very valuable to us to living our lives. They will be like ornaments and chains. In other words, they will be like expensive jewelry. When someone wears the finest jewelry, it shows a level of wealth, quality, and distinctiveness financially about the person. When we live according to what our parents say, it shows a level of wealth, quality, and distinctiveness morally about us.

This also means that it depends on whether your parents are leading you toward godliness or not. Always put obedience to God first. But even if your parents are not born again but have a moral stand like mine did, then recognize the gifts from God that they are and show your moral wealth by listening and not forsaking what they have told you.